Manning, Brady utilize their WRs

ENGLEWOOD -- Roughly one-third into the season, Manning-Brady was looking more like Manning --------- Brady.

Peyton Manning was throwing some serious separation between himself and his career-long personal rival.

Manning started 5-0 with 20 touchdown passes and 1,884 passing yards, all while throwing to arguably the NFL's most lethal four-man receiving group. He went on to set records in both statistical categories while guiding the Broncos to an AFC-best, 13-3 record.

Brady started 4-1 for the New England Patriots, but with only seven touchdown passes and 1,211 yards -- nearly two TD passes and 135 yards per game less than Manning -- while throwing to an overhauled set of receivers.

"Their No. 1 guy last year is on our team," said Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey.

Besides losing Welker to free agency and the Broncos in the offseason,Brady lost his tight end towers of Rob Gronkowski to injury and Aaron Hernandez to a murder charge.

"One thing about Brady, he always overcomes that," Bailey said.

Even if it means less Brady. He finished with 25 touchdown passes, his lowest full-season output since 2006, and an 87.3 passer rating that was the lowest of his career.

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Yet, Brady also led the Patriots to an AFC-second-best record of 12-4.

One of those victories was a comeback from a 24-0 halftime deficit to defeat Manning and the Broncos, 34-31 in overtime, on a blustery, frigid, November evening in Foxborough, Mass.

This time it will be Manning and his deep stable of pass catchers against Brady and his revamped receivers Sunday afternoon in the AFC championship game at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, where the forecast calls for sunshine and temperatures in the upper-50s. Winner goes to the Super Bowl.

"I had this discussion about five weeks into the season about who was having a more amazing season," said Boomer Esiason, a former NFL quarterback and now an NFL analyst for CBS. "Was it Peyton Manning because of everything he was doing and all the numbers he was putting up? Or was it Tom Brady who was winning with basically lesser known players? And maybe even a different type of offense, more of a running-style offense as opposed to a throwing-it-down-the-field type of offense.

"And then all of the sudden at the end of the year you see he throws for (4,343) yards, wins yet another division title and is going to yet another AFC championship game."

Until Manning strung together the greatest quarterback performance in NFL regular-season history, no team had more than three players score at least 10 touchdowns each.

"Those are the same targets (former Broncos quarterbacks) Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow had and nobody thought they were weapons," said former Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe. "Everybody said Knowshon Moreno was a bust, Eric Decker was just a guy, Demaryius Thomas couldn't stay healthy. They only became weapons once they got with Manning."

It's tricky. To say Manning was much better than Brady this year because the Broncos had better receivers is to take something away from the Broncos' quarterback.

Not everyone is convinced Manning is throwing to a far superior set of receivers than is Brady.

"Peyton Manning might be the best wide receiver coach in the NFL," said Phil Simms, the former quarterback who will call the Broncos-Pats game for CBS. "I've watched it with the players there in Denver, how they've all gotten better. Sharper, smarter and more into the game. They've become real true pros. He is a great teacher."

Brady has brought along his receivers nicely, too. Just not as quickly -- maybe because they had longer to go. His new top receiver, Julian Edelman, was a college quarterback at Kent State. Danny Amendola was undrafted out of Texas Tech and cut by Dallas and Philadelphia. Aaron Dobson and Kenbrell Thompkins are rookies.

At tight end, Gronkowski and Hernandez combined for 106 catches and 16 touchdowns in 2012. Their replacements, Michael Hoomanawanui and Matthew Mulligan, had 14 catches and two touchdowns this season.

Running the ball seemed like a logical option until Stevan Ridley, who rushed for 1,263 yards and 12 touchdowns in his breakout, second season of 2012 started fumbling this year.

"You can talk about all the injuries that New England has had, but 12 is still there," Sharpe said. "If you have that guy, I don't care how bad your offense is, I don't care how bad your running game is. If you have that guy, you have a chance. Without that guy you can have a great defense, you can have great special teams, but without him a coach might as well say, 'When am I going to lose my job?' It's just a matter of time."

New England coach Bill Belichick isn't going anywhere. Other than accompanying Brady on the trip to Denver this weekend.

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